This blog is an occasional record of my family history research. My research includes ALL my maternal and paternal families: Beismer, Beesimer, Debeck, Flower(s), Hogancamp, Hendricks(on), Hulse, Mattice, Odell, O'Dell, Oliver, Platner, Vande(r)mark, Wormuth, primarily in New York State mostly in Delaware, Greene and Sullivan counties but also throughout the state and into nearby states.

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Monday, June 11, 2012

FamilyTreeDNA

I've had 2 DNA tests run by FamilyTreeDNA - a mitochondrial (matrilineal) test done of my DNA and a y-chromosomal test done of my father's DNA.

As I understand the tests - the mitochondrial test only looks at tags passed from mother to daughter down through the line - or, in other words - it only shows DNA that I inherited from my mother, she from my maternal grandmother, she from my maternal great mother, etc., back through all the women of my mother's line It does not look at DNA inherited by any of those women from their fathers or their mothers' fathers.

In my case, while my maternal grandmother got me interested in family history because she told me repeatedly when I was a child that my great great great grandfather went to "the mountains" and brought back a "squaw" as his wife - this particular test particular test show nothing but European ethic tags. If there was a female ancestor on my mother's line, she did not pass her DNA to a female offspring. If she had a son who was in direct line to my mother, her father's ethnic tags would be passed to him but would not be seen in this test.

It gets complicated. As I was told, my great great great grandfather married a Native woman. Grandma didn't even tell me if it was in her family or in my grandfather's so there I'm stuck already. If anyone know which she meant, let me know.